Artist of Death
by Timbit the Lynx-Angel
Summary: Jie. Jie isn't like any artist - his greatest skill is killing. But what happens when he sets out for his greatest kill up to date; what happens when he sets out for the Dragon Warrior?
1. Jie

The wind softly blew through the grass of the hillside. It was afternoon – the end of another hot day of summer. The sun was setting in the vest and the previously clear blue sky had an orange, yellow and somewhat violet or pink color now.

The hillside was usually deserted, though the nearest village was a few miles away. But not on that fated day. A lone mouse walked among the hills, which appeared much larger to him than they would to any creature bigger than him. The brown fur and the black and golden robes swayed in the wind in rhythm to the grass and as he walked, he was in deep thoughts – dark and nostalgic thoughts.

His name was Jie. Just Jie. He didn't have a last name – at least he didn't use any and never had. What was a little mouse doing out on such a big hillside, you may ask. You see, Jie was an artist… out to fulfill a request. But he wasn't a normal artist. Sure he was good at calligraphy and music and all that… but no, those weren't his biggest artistic skills. No; Jie was an artist of death.

"He deserved it," Jie grumbled to himself as he kept walking. _Who deserved what?_ Well, it all started many years ago when Jie was very young and discovered the joy in creating art. His calligraphy and music was brilliant and of high class – unfortunately he was the only one to see it; his genius was so brilliant that it was impossible for anyone else to understand.

One day the young Jie had seen a man practice Wudang Sword Style. Hypnotized and fascinated by this new 'moving' art, the young mouse asked the man, if he would teach him this new art. Already having a great talent for art, the young Jie quickly became a good student, according to the man, better than any previous student he had had.

As soon as he had mastered the Wudang Sword Style, Jie returned to his home. He didn't know what to expect – maybe he expected that his peers would be impressed. They had always mocked and bullied him… but now – now they could only respect him as a man of such a powerful art.

But no; he showed the new art to a goat he had known most of his life. He waited for at least a compliment, but all he got was: "Why'd you waste time learning that? If you went into battle, all your foe would have to do, would be to stomp on you and you'd be a goner!"

As the goat had started laughing, Jie had felt the anger rush up inside of him – bursting, just like fireworks. It felt as if it was burning his body from the inside and before he could even stop himself, he had stabbed the goat in the knee with his one sword. Before the goat could even scream in pain, another sword penetrated his chest and impaled his heart.

But that was only the start of Jie's new art-obsession; every kill was a piece of art to him. Since then he had lived with a twisted mind; one artistic part, another part cruel.

"Jie-Sama!" Jie looked up to see a big rhinoceros beetle come flying towards him. The crimson little bug was one of his alleys, so Jie calmly walked on as the beetle landed beside him and walked beside him.

His name is Onibuto and Jie's most trusted ally. Before he met Jie, Onibuto was a Sumo wrestler from Japan. Having lost a big match, thus become humiliated in front of his family and friends, Onibuto had goneto China to train, so that he could bring honor to his friends and family.

Jie saw potential in the rhinoceros beetle's great strength and offered him to join him and help him achieve the title as the Greatest Artist Ever. Eventually joining up with Jie, Onibuto soon forgot about his original purpose of his presence in China.

"Jie-Sama, the Valley of Peace isn't far away," Onibuto told his Sama – his lord.

"Perfect," was all that Jie said to this. The target that could make him the ultimate artist was in that Valley –the Dragon Warrior. The Dragon Warrior was a legendary warrior of Kung Fu, and he'd be the ultimate art piece as soon as Jie got to him.

Soon the two were joined by a beech marten and a monitor lizard, when they passed by a few small trees. The marten's name was Meili and she was another of Jie's allies, one of the best of them when it came to combat. Her bluish gray fur softly waved in the wind as she greeted her two team members and started walking beside them. As usual she wore her light violet robes with black trims, and she had her Fire Rings.

The monitor lizard was named Ye and was another sworn alley to Jie. He was covered in green scales and he wore a pair of pale green pants. He was the more outrageous of the group and better at combat than the others – especially against foes where brawns were needed to win – that being said, he was very hard to stop once he had started fighting or going into a rage. Just like Meili, he wielded a weapon; a Monk Spade – a big spade, which was capable of making the sharpest sword's edge dull upon impact – that was how powerful it was.

"Where are the others?" Jie asked as he led his group – the dangerous Jien Fong – across the plains. But Onibuto, Meili and Ye were only the one half of the Jien Fong – there were three more members. Those were the Pangolin Twins, Tingguang and Tingfeng, and then there was Qing the crow, the Jien Fong's primary spy.

"They're not far away," Meili replied. "Qing is still surveying the Valley... We're close now."

The little group continued for a while without talking. They eventually came to a dark forest and the four went inside. The Valley wasn't far away, just like Meili had mentioned, so probably beyond these woods. Jie led his group into the forest and soon they were surrounded by darkness and tall trees; the sun's light didn't even reach them in there.

The Jien Fong were on their guards, ready to strike at the smallest sign of an attack – Jie and the others had gotten quite big bounties on their heads over the years, so they were always on the lookout for bounty hunters.

They eventually came to a little forest path and eventually decided to follow it through the forest. Suddenly the sound of – the _silent_ sound of – wing-beats was heard above their heads. Quickly looking up, Jie got his belief confirmed; it was Qing the raven. The black bird descended and eventually joined the others. He wore some red robes, but here in the dark forest they almost seemed brown.

"Status, Qing-Kun" Onibuto ordered as Jie remained silent as they walked.

"The Valley of Peace is right up ahead... we just need to get past this forest," the avian replied.

_Perfect_ – now Jie was even closer to his goal, closer to succeeding. Soon Jie could spot the light of the last sun-rays as the forest started parting in front of them. Jie could feel a cool breeze blow through his short fur again and also knew how much closer he was to fulfilling his goal; he could practically feel the presence of the Dragon Warrior. Now they just needed to wait for the Twins and they'd be ready for the kill.

Ah, talking about the sun... there came the Twins. Rolled into spheres, they rolled up and joined the others as they stood there, looking out on the Valley. They were both covered in grayish, armory plates and both wore light blue robes. The two had been beggars before Jie took them in, because he realized that their ability to fight in their sphere-form, had potential. But the only problem with them was the fact that they were visually identical. The other members had learned that their voices were slightly different, thus a way of spotting, who was who.

"So Jie-Sama… what's the plan?" Onibuto asked as the seven of them stood there and looked down on the village. The group stood on a great hill and the village was beneath them, looking like any other mountain village; surrounded by a protecting wall of mountains and with plenty of grassy plains and around. There were also a river running through the village and as the sun was setting, the lighting in the village got darker and darker.

"Let's start with phase one," Jie said in a leader's voice and started towards the village with a dark gleam in his eyes.

* * *

First chapter of the story for Darth-Craftus on deviantART (If you have a fanfiction account here, please tell me), I really hope it's to your liking! :)  
This'll be a rather graphic and violent fic compared tow hat you've seen me pull of untill now - it's all in the title, I guess you could say. It's my first time writing such a fic, so please let me know what you think of it. ^_^


	2. First Encounter

Po made his way into the village. The big panda had just finished his daily Kung Fu training and was ready for a quick 'snack' before dinner – noodles from his dad's restaurant. Po was quite famous in the village as he was one of the Kung Fu Masters who resided at the local palace, Jade Palace, where he trained in order to defend the Valley of Peace from attackers from the outside.

Po chuckled a little when some children enthusiastically greeted him. He used to be very unpopular for his laziness and poor shape, but it was all bound to change when he turned out to be the legendary Dragon Warrior. At first he had thought it was a mistake (Who wouldn't have?), but eventually everyone had come to accept it when he defeated Tai Lung – a rogue student of Po's Master, Master Shifu. Since then, Po and the Furious Five, the other Kung Fu Master of Jade Palace, had been through a lot together. They had saved countless lives, braved great dangers, come across great obstacles that you could only dream of and faced enemies that could easily have spawned from nightmares.

When he finally got to his dad's restaurant, Po saw that it was almost empty, safe for a few elderly customers. Perfect – now Po could help his dad get the day's leftovers out of the way. A few of the customers did greet him as he had helped them out before and it was with a smile that he greeted them as well.

"Po my boy, welcome!" Po's dad, Mr. Ping happily greeted his son. Now, there are a couple of things that need to be explained. First off, Mr. Ping is a goose. He stands almost about half as tall as Po and is covered in gray feathers all over. His robes are brownish and match his place in the social middleclass. Mr. Ping had found Po as a baby in between some supplies he had received once, many years ago. Mr. Ping had taken him in and raised him as his own son; eventually leading up to the day Po became the Dragon Warrior. Of course Mr. Ping was proud of his son (Who wouldn't be?) but as his father, he was constantly worried about Po getting injured or killed on his many adventures.

"Hi dad, how's it going?" Po asked his father with a smile. Po was well aware that he might have another family somewhere else, but he loved Mr. Ping nonetheless – without him as his father, Po wouldn't have been the man he was today.

"Oh Po, nothing couldn't be better," the old goose said joyfully. "As far as customers go, this might be best year the restaurant's had!"

"Dad, you say that every year," Po reminded his father with a smile. Before any of them could speak any further, they were interrupted by the sound of Po's stomach growling.

Mr. Ping chuckled at his son's usual tendencies. "Don't worry my boy, I'll fix that."

Po smiled at his father and sat down by one of the available tables in the restaurant and took a look around. Everything was like it always had been; same tables, same chairs, same red lanterns and same regulars, well almost. The lanterns had been lit up due to the approaching darkness and the Chinese symbol for 'Light', which was painted in black, had a dark and sinister glow to it, while the shining red background added a great bit of contrast. It was just like Po had always remembered the pleasant summer afternoons when he was still very young.

Suddenly Po heard something – it sounded like a rampage was going on! the big panda quickly got to his feet and ran off to check it out… of course he remembered to tell his father to keep the soup hot for when he came back.

Po hurried into the village and suddenly he noticed a smell in the air – evil! Or maybe it was just smoke, those are really similar smelling. Eventually Po finally made it to the marketplace of the village. He could tell that some of the stands actually _had_ caught on fire, but that was not what surprised Po the most. What surprised him the most was to see, that there was someone rampaging the marketplace, just like he had suspected.

One of them suddenly threw a stand with food at the stand that was already on fire. He was a reptile of some sort, and if it wasn't because he was so short, Po would have thought that it was one of Fung's henchmen. And who was that crow who was just sitting there, watching?

"Okay, time to deliver the awesomeness," Po muttered to himself in an excited tone of voice and walked towards the scene.

As he got closer, a furry, little creature suddenly appeared. She stood just about as tall as the reptile and when she saw Po, she said: "Ye, that's enough! He's here."

Ye the lizard stopped and turned to face Po. Who were those two and what were they doing? Had they done all of this to get his attention? If so, then why? Suddenly Po heard the sound of running footsteps behind him and just barely managed to jump aside as two spheres of… something shot past him at high speed. When the two spheres landed on the ground, they unfolded and revealed two creatures covered in spiky armor.

The four strangers took on their own individual battle stance and suddenly a fifth member of their little group entered the scene and walked up in front of the bunch. He was a mouse, not even standing half as tall as Po – this guy was barely bigger than his foot! He wore some black robes with golden trims and his fur was brown, even though they almost seemed dark gray due to the lack of sunlight.

"Who are you guys?" Po asked and took on his own battle stance, just in case they'd try something. "And why are you here?"

"I… am here for _you_, Dragon Warrior," the mouse said and drew a sword from a sheath on his back and pointed it at Po. If it wasn't because it was barely half as long, as a standard chopstick, Po would have been a little scared by this answer. "Your death will be my ultimate art piece."

Wait, what? Why would he want to kill Po? From what Po recalled, he had never met this guy before, so what was he doing just now? Why would you possibly want to kill someone you didn't even know?

Suddenly Po heard a weird noise. It sounded like a weird humming, except it was much faster… and it seemed to be something that moved towards him! Po just barely managed to turn his head and see a dark crimson object fly towards him at high speed. As a reflex, he quickly brought a hand up to cover his face from the attacker, but it wasn't necessary.

Like a green lightning from the sky, Mantis hit the attacking beetle with a powerful kick, sending him towards the other intruders. Po sighed with relief and was just thankful that he had such powerful friends as Mantis.

"Po!" Soon the rest of Po's team entered the scene – Tigress, Monkey, Crane and Viper. They joined Po and Mantis and the six lined up across from the mysterious pack before them.

"Who are you guys?" Po asked again, expecting a proper answer this time.

"The name is Jie," the mouse introduced himself with a sneaky smile. There was something about his personality that radiated intelligence, but also coldness. "And this is the Jien Fong… Onibuto, Meili, Ye, Tingguang, Tingfeng and Qing, all at my full service."

Did he really gather a whole team to get here and kill Po? It sounded very unlikely… but if he really had why bother? As he said, he wanted to kill Po, but where was the logic? Since when had it been seen as art to kill someone? Maybe this Jie needed a reality-check or something, Po thought.

"I don't know what you're really after, unless what you said is true," Po started and took a step forwards. "But if you want to settle things with a little fight…"

"Po, a Master always saves a battle for the absolutely last option," Tigress pointed out, but Po ignored her and soon the Jien Fong charged him and the Furious Five.

* * *

Mantis was a mantis, obviously, and was covered in green outer skeleton. His only attire was some robes he had tied around his ankles and he was barely as big as the beetle he had just saved Po from. A Master of the Mantis Kung Fu Style, it was only logical that he had been able to – very few styles focus as much on speed as the Mantis Style.

Fighting up against Onibuto was quite a challenge though. Even when attacking the rhinoceros beetle with powerful kicks, he was still able to block with his strong hands. Where Mantis had speed on his side, Onibuto had strength, so they were equally matched.

"Not so tough, are we Kamakiri-Kun?" Onibuto asked Mantis in a tone of victory, even though the battle had just started.

"I don't know what that means, but don't get cocky!" Mantis told Onibuto and jumped towards him with another well-placed kick.

* * *

Viper was a Master of the Viper Style, the fast and accurate Style, which was very hard to counter. Viper had a long and sleek body and was covered in yellow scales all over, though she had black ones on her back of which some looked like Chinese characters. Viper had always been a warm, loving and caring type, but in a fight, like the one she was in against Ye, she kept her cool and performed her techniques with a great display of speed and accuracy, hitting all of Ye's weak points.

The only disadvantage she had over him was the fact that he had arms and that he was far stronger than she was. But fortunately strength wasn't everything that mattered in a fight.

Viper dodged another powerful punch from Ye and jumped into the air. When she came back down, she wrapped herself around Ye's right arm, upper torso and left shoulder to keep him paralyzed. "Why do you want to hurt Po? We've never even met you!"

"Doesn't matter," Ye replied as he tried to break free of Viper's strong grip, which he ultimately failed to do. "If Jie says so, I'm willing to kill anyone who stands in our way."

* * *

The agile Master Crane was up against Qing the crow. Being much smaller, Qing had an easy time confusing Crane, with lots of sharp maneuvers, and Crane's long legs and big wings also hindered his movements and slowed him a little down. Qing wasn't much of a fighter, but he still caused Crane quite a bit of trouble.

Qing soared high into the sky and, just as expected, Crane followed him. When he reached the perfect height, Qing folded his wings in and let himself drop towards Crane, with his beak pointed towards him, forming a living projectile of feathers.

Crane just barely managed to avoid getting impaled by the sharp crow-beak and managed to hit Qing with a kick in the process. Crane quickly turned himself midair and kicked Qing in the face as the crow came in for another attack.

"Not bad," Qing complimented Crane in a tone, which signaled that he actually meant it somewhat. But before Crane could make a reply, Qing flapped with his wings a few times, making several feathers fall off. It actually looked like he had just shed all of his feathers, but somehow he didn't seem to lose any. And when the feathers started descending, Qing was out of sight. "But not nearly good enough!"

Suddenly Crane felt a pair of powerful talons hit his back with high speed, sending him towards the ground below them.

* * *

Monkey jumped aside as an armored sphere dashed towards him with incredibly high speed. As he did so, he could feel how the other pangolin twin just barely failed to hit him from behind as he felt a gust of wind on his tail. These new foes were fast – almost too fast.

As one of them (To Monkey it was impossible to tell a difference) shot towards him again, Monkey saw that the other one did as well. When the first one was about to hit him in the stomach, he brought down his arms and in one fast motion, he flipped the pangolin around and shot him right at his twin brother.

"Hey, that's no fun," one of them growled at Monkey.

"That depends on perspective," Monkey replied in a teasing tone of voice. When the two twins attacked him again, he grabbed a big piece of wood from one of the destroyed stands and used it as a staff weapon. Monkey used it to block the incoming attackers and when the twins landed again, they went to actually fight him instead of striking him.

Monkey blocked a few punches and kicks from both of them with his staff, then pushed them backwards and delivered a double-kick to them – hitting them both with one foot to each.

One of the twins dashed towards him and tried to punch him, but Monkey blocked it with the staff. But unfortunately he hadn't seen that the other twin had sneaked over behind him and before he knew it, he was hit in the back.

* * *

Meili swung her Fire Wheels towards Tigress, who dodged by jumping backwards, then leaped forwards and hit Meili in the stomach with a kick. Meili stumbled backwards a little, then noticed that there was a big barrel filled with oil behind Tigress.

She charged Tigress once again, attacking her with her Flame Wheels a few times, which the feline blocked. Then the Marten jumped over Tigress and landed behind her. Meili then charged towards the barrel, dipped her Fire Wheels in them and charged one of the burning stands.

The oil coiling the Flame Wheels incinerated, making the already dangerous weapons more dangerous. The temperature rose highly around the two women and Meili charged Tigress once again, swinging the burning weapons towards her.

Tigress kept her cool and dodged every attack, since she could not block the weapons; no matter how hardcore she was, as Po would put it, the weapons were still dangerous, even when not on fire. The fiery blades nearly struck Tigress with every slash, but Meili simply wasn't accurate enough because of the flames on the weapons.

Finally Tigress got to hit Meili in the stomach with a solid punch after dodging another slash. Tigress then managed to knock the Flame Wheels out of Meili's hands and they landed on the ground a few meters away, finally making the flames die down. Once Meili was disarmed, Tigress went all out – countless, fast and powerful kicks and punches flew at Meili and the Beech Marten was unable to block the majority of it. Once Meili was finally knocked out, Tigress turned to her friends, but unfortunately they all seemed to have a hard time fighting of the Jien Fong. But when she looked over at Po, she found herself astonished at what she saw.


	3. Their First Battle

"Why was it again that you wanted to kill me?" Po asked Jie as he hit the little mouse with a punch. Po was actually being a little careful – mainly because he didn't want squished mouse on his hands, but also because he wanted to know what Jie's intentions were… before he fled or before he was defeated by Po and his friends.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Jie replied calmly as he jumped into the air and spun around himself in a three-sixty movement, almost hitting Po in the face with his sword. "But don't worry; I'll let you know… before you'll eventually fall."

"Unless I defeat you first," Po said cockily and lifted his foot above the ground as Jie tried to slash it. Instead of stomping on him as you'd think, Po wasted this opportunity and went back to fighting Jie.

Suddenly the little mouse disappeared from Po's sight. For a short moment, Po was completely disoriented and looked around in confusion. _Where'd he go?_ Suddenly his question was answered by a strong pain in his left leg. "Ouch, hey, that hurt!"

"Oh, but the fight's only just begun, Dragon Warrior," Jie said and brought his sword up in a defensive position. Maybe it was just Po's imagination, but was that blood dripping off the blade? Maybe he should be more careful… nah, as long as he'd win the fight, who cared?

Suddenly Jie jumped surprisingly high into the air – at level with Po's face. Po quickly covered his face with his right arm, feeling a stinging pain as Jie's sword left another wound. But hey, rather on the arm than in the face, right, Po thought.

Po jumped backwards and avoided another slash from Jie's miniature sword. It wasn't because it was that dangerous – sure he had taken a bit of damage from the sharp blade and sure he had gotten a few injuries on his arms, hands and legs already … but hey, he was Po the Dragon Warrior, right? Like another regular foe could bring him down – and one as little as Jie? Never!

Jie could tell that his sword had already left its marks on the big panda and could almost see how Po's movements had gotten slower and more cautious, as to hinder his wounds from hurting when he fought.

Po dodged a few more slashes from Jie's sword, but suddenly he felt another strong pain in his knee as Jie's sword left another wound. Po fell to his knees and groaned in pain. Having the cold wind blow against his open wounds was almost unbearable and Po's body almost hurt too much to even move.

Tigress could clearly tell that Po had been taking Jie too lightly. Through many years of experience, she had learned that foes could be equally difficult no matter how big they were – look at Mantis for example – a lesson she had had to learn the hard way. Now she was only worried about her big friend. No, Tigress couldn't just watch from a sideline – she had to help her friend. Tigress quickly made her way towards Jie and Po. It was one of the few times that they had fought opponents that wielded weapons, and due to them not having any, it was a little hard to be even.

As Jie jumped into the air and was about to slash Po in the face to finish him off, the little mouse was sent flying through the air by a massive punch from Tigress. But Jie knew that the second phase of his plan had succeeded: weaken and intimidate the opponent.

Before Jie hit the ground, he was caught by Onibuto's small, yet strong arms. The powerful rhinoceros beetle put down his Master and Jie turned to Po and the Furious Five. "Just wait Dragon Warrior, we'll be back."

"Po, are you okay?" Tigress asked in a worried voice as her big friend almost fell over and Tigress quickly supported him by her shoulder. She could clearly tell that Po was nearly worn out and Jie had injured him too much.

* * *

"Ouch, careful," Po told the palace worker with a grimace. He and the Five were back at the Jade Palace and they had their injuries taken care of by the geese that worked in the palace. Po was the one who was injured the most, but the others had also gotten a few bruises and wounds here and there – Crane even had wounds in his back caused by Qing's talons. The six students had tried their best, but yet they had only barely survived the fight. Were they getting weaker?

Suddenly the door was opened and Master Shifu entered. The old master had a very worried look on his face and the six students all remained silent as they waited for their Master to speak. Shifu let his eyes glide over them all, seeing all their injuries. "So?"

"So what?" Po asked confused, but flinched as another wound was being cleaned with a cloth.

"Aren't you going to tell me exactly what happened?" Master Shifu asked impatiently. The six students all knew that it wasn't because he didn't care about them and their injuries. No, it was because Master Shifu was worried; he knew that they had all been trained all their lives – save for Po – and the fact that someone almost had been able to kill them, was shocking for Shifu… never had they ever been this close to being killed.

"Well…" Po started and everyone's eyes turned towards him. "There was this guy, Jie… He and his… I don't know if you can call them friends; they traveled with him and all, but they didn't seem to…"

"Po," Tigress interrupted him, reminding him that he was losing the point.

"Oh, right…" Po said. "Well, they came to the village and started wrecking the marketplace… we went to stop, but…"

"But what?" Master Shifu asked with a raised eyebrow. He already had a bad feeling about what he the answer he was expecting.

"They were too powerful," Monkey sighed. Monkey was usually so jolly and sassy, but seeing him like this was certainly a rarity, but none of the others seemed to take note of this, as there were more important things to go over.

"That's what I was afraid of," Master Shifu said and sighed. "What did they want?"

"Well… that Jie-guy said that he wanted to…" Po stopped midsentence. "… Kill me…"

"What did he say?" Shifu asked, seemingly rather disturbed by this. He gave Po the usual 'what have you done now'-look, at least that's what Po called it. Po kind of had the feeling that Shifu suspected Po to have something to do with this; maybe someone who wanted revenge on him, but no – Po knew Jie's reasons… really bad reasons, but still reasons.

"That's what he said," Po explained. "He didn't say _why_ though…"

"This is bad…" Shifu muttered to himself. The old, red panda seemed to be in deep thoughts and didn't say a word for a moment. The six students waited in silence as the geese took care of their wounds. Tigress was the only one who had actually been able to defeat her opponent, Meili, but even so, she had struggled greatly to do so. Were the Jien Fong really that much stronger than they, or were the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five getting weaker than they used to be? The only thing that could help this would be more training.

"Master Shifu, if they return…" Crane started, but stopped himself midsentence.

"… then we'll have to become stronger," Tigress finished the sentence with a determined face on. Po on the other hand was a little more worried about facing Jie and the Jien Fong again. After all, it was _his_ life that was at stake.

"Yeah, I need to pay back that stupid beetle!" Mantis said in an upbeat voice. His battle with Onibuto hadn't been much of a success from Mantis side, so he was ready for a second round, wounded or not.

"Guys, I think you've forgotten one big detail," Viper suddenly said and everyone looked towards her. "Jie is after Po, so if they return, they'll most likely distract us by fighting us and then Jie will have a perfect chance to finish off Po all alone."

"Good point, Viper," Master Shifu said wisely and seemed to think for a few more moments before continuing. "Po, you will have to remain in Jade Palace until the Jien Fong is defeated."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait… wait…" Po protested. He didn't want to just stay inside the palace like a scared… mouse! No, why should he? He was the Dragon Warrior! "I'm not just staying in here – you guys need me!"

"Po, I'm sorry, but that's just how it has to be," Tigress growled sternly, surprising everyone greatly.

"Shifu…" Po tried to convince his Master, but all he got from it was Shifu shaking his head. Po sighed. But… if he stayed in the palace, what could he do to help? Meditate and hope for the best?

"But… I'm a hero… and if I can't fight…" Po stopped for a second. "If I can't fight, then I guess… I'm not a hero anymore…"

Everyone seemed to disagree. They all knew that Po had learned several things while staying in Jade Palace. But there was still one thing he needed to learn. The others had learned it long ago; you didn't need to fight in order to be a hero – what makes you a hero is that you keep fighting, but not necessarily with your fists. Ergo, Po could still be the hero he wanted to be, and the hero that the people of China loved and idolized… even stuck inside the palace, he would still be a hero. But no, he would have to learn that for himself.

"Students, you need to prepare yourselves to fight off the Jien Fong again," Shifu said determined. Shifu walked towards the door in the room. "We'll start tomorrow. Po?"

"Yeah?"

"Even though you're bound to stay at the palace, this also means you," Shifu explained as he left the room.

"Aw, really?" Po complained. Great, he couldn't leave the Jade Palace, but he would still have to train, just like the others, who were allowed to leave! Urgh, what else could you expect from Shifu? After their Master left, the six remained silent, left alone with their wounds and the geese that were treating them.


	4. One Angered Little Reptile

Ye smashed his clenched fist against the tree. In spite of his size, he actually managed to knock a few leaves off their branches. "Why didn't we just finish them off right away?"

"Because the plan was to first weaken them," Meili replied, annoyed by the aggressive lizard's urges to fight. She knew that it had been a smart move, and the next time the two teams faced off, the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five were sure to be finished off.

"But now they have the time to recover," Ye complained and ran his claws along the bark of the tree.

"Exactly," Jie said, surprising all of them. Everyone turned to face Jie, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Jie-Sama… What is the meaning behind this?" Onibuto asked calmly, waiting for his Sama to answer.

"The kill won't be as beautifully done if the target is too weak to fight back," Jie asked coldly and let his hand run along the blade of his sword, letting it remove the aftermath of the previous battle. "And that's just how it has to be."

"Hmm… fine," Ye muttered annoyed and wandered off into the woods. Sure he had a lot of respect for Jie, but this wasn't the right way to get to it… at least according to Ye himself. Ye made his way through the forest past the many tall trees. Heck be with Jie – Ye could take them all out alone… at least some of them. Ye came to a clearing and could see the village up ahead. Yes, now he just had to get to the Jade Palace… but by the gods, there was a long way up there…

"Are you really going to just ignore Jie's orders?" Ye jumped in surprise and took on a battle stance. Even then, Qing didn't seem to care, or become the least intimidated. "Yes, it's you that I'm talking to."

"Oh come on," Ye grumbled annoyed. "Don't you have someone else to be staking right now?"

"I don't stalk people," Qing said, sounding rather insulted. "I spy on them."

"That's nice, but there isn't that much of a difference if you ask me." Ye was about to continue, but suddenly he realized something – Qing was a witness. "You're not going to tell Jie, are you?"

"Of course I am," Qing replied casually. In a fraction of a second Qing took off, leaving a few feathers behind as he dodged a punch from Ye, which would have hit him in the face.

"You creep; why do you even care?" Ye growled and threw a rock after the raven, which missed by an inch or so.

"Because that's my job," Qing replied slyly and landed on a nearby boulder, folding his wings against his body. "Besides, if you mess up, I want to see it."

Angrily Ye continued towards the village, well aware of the fact that Qing was following him. He didn't need the others; he would take down all of them alone, and that way, he'd show Jie that he was worthy and also allow Jie to finish off the Dragon Warrior without anyone to stand in the way.

"You do realize that Jie is going to kill you, right?" Qing asked as he soared above Ye towards the village.

"No he's not," Ye growled. "He'll realize that I have more potential than any of you, even Onibuto!"

"You do realize that Jie trusts us more than you?" Qing sighed annoyed at the lizard.

"No, I… wait what?"

"That's right," Qing said with a sneaky expression on his face. "He tells us more than he tells you…"

"Impossible!" Ye growled angrily. "When? I'm always there, so how could I miss anything that Jie would tell you?"

"At night when you're asleep of course," Qing replied as if Ye should have been aware of the answer. He then chuckled: "Besides, when was the last time you were allowed on a solo mission? Hmm… that's a tricky one…"

Qing just barely managed to dodge the rock that came flying towards him. He smiled to himself as he realized just how angry he had made the green reptile. If he could make him even angrier, there was a great chance that he would make such a rampage in the village that Jie would find out and throw Ye out of the Jien Fong… To be honest, Qing had never liked Ye.

"I'll give you tricky!" After that from Ye, Qing had to fly fast in order to keep up with the green lizard. Eventually the two came into the village and as Ye grabbed a random cart and pushed it over. Next he started to chase villagers around and cause damage to some of the nearby houses. All the many villagers fled from the raging lizard while Qing just landed on a rooftop to watch the fireworks.

Ye suddenly threw a box off in agitation, but suddenly it was sent back at him and hit him in the head. Ye didn't pass out, but did seem to have a hard time standing up straight. He turned to his left and saw a red panda standing there. He had bright red fur all over with some darker red stripes on his tail. He had some white beard and looked very old, and he wore some brown robes.

"Who are you?" Ye growled full of rage.

"My name is Shifu," the red panda introduced himself. Shifu then took on a battle stance.

"Hah, like I would fight an old man," Ye said carelessly.

"Why, are you afraid of losing?" Shifu asked him calmly, knowing that it was probably enough to tick off the angered lizard.

With a battle roar, Ye charged Shifu. Ye jumped forwards with a powerful punch, knowing that it would surely knock Shifu out if it hit him in the head. Suddenly Ye froze as Shifu's tiny fist smashed against his stomach, even before Ye's punch hit Shifu – about an inch between the two.

As Shifu withdrew his punch, Ye had to use all of his muscles to keep himself from falling over – Shifu's punch had hit him in the stomach and Shifu had used a special technique, which almost knocked out the angered lizard.

Ye managed to get his mind back on track and tried to ignore the pain and managed to bring up a fist, but when he was about to punch, Shifu jumped backwards out of range.

"Never judge people from what you see," Shifu said calmly and took on a battle stance. Ye, of course not being able to control his anger towards the red panda charged him again.

Almost faster than Ye was able to see, Shifu blocked and dodged each and every punch and kick from Ye. Ye just kept on fighting and his anger and frustration only gave him more power.

"I usually just judge them and then I defeat them," Ye growled and desperately kept punching at Shifu. How was this old man able to outmatch him? Wasn't it the point that you got weaker with age, or had Ye misunderstood all of that? "Why do you even dare fighting me?"

"I am the Master of the Jade Palace," Shifu explained calmly as if he tried to make Ye angrier. "And if you and your companions want to defeat my students, you'll have to get past me to do it."

"Students, what students?" Ye asked and tried to grab Shifu by his throat.

"He's talking about the Dragon Warrior and his friends, you idiot," Qing yelled from the sidelines. Ye had almost forgotten that he was there, and the reptile was surprised that he hadn't left to tell Jie about what Ye was doing.

"Which reminds me," Qing continued, this time in a far sneakier voice. "Now that their Master is here, who's even watching them now? I mean, we're not that big, I'm sure we could get into that palace no problem."

Shifu eventually realized what the crow had told him – of course; maybe this was all a distraction to get him away from his wounded students, so that Jie and the others could finish them off! Shifu immediately felt trapped – he would either have to stay and stop the angered Ye from destroying the village… or he would have to retreat and save his students.

* * *

A relatively short chapter, I apologize, but I simply didn't know how to handle this - I wanted to make a more Jie-less chapter, but it didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to... I just didn't know what to do without Jie... :/


	5. A Fowl Game to Play

Hello everyone! I'm finally back! I know this took forever, please don't send the Jien Fong after me, DarthCraftus! *Falls on knees*... Eh... anyways, I hope you'll like it, and that the rest of you will as well. :D

* * *

Po gritted his teeth as he also rubbed one of his injuries underneath the bandage. He was in his bed trying to fall asleep. He knew he needed the rest – after all, he actually had to train tomorrow.

But those injuries from Jie's sword… they weren't helping… like at all. They hurt, even with all the medicine and bandages; how would he ever be able to sleep like this?!

Po gave up. The Dragon Warrior was used to fighting off dangerous criminals, but this was worse. Suddenly he got an idea: maybe it would help to get some food!

Letting the hunger defeat the wanting to sleep, the panda got up from his bed and walked towards his door. Sliding it aside, Po exited his room, but just as his foot hit the floor and a creaking noise escaped the planks, the others' doors rapidly opened.

Everyone had a battle stance on, but they loosened up when they saw that it was just their friend.

"Wow, guys, why are you all up?" Po asked surprised.

"Because you woke us up," Viper said, sounding annoyed yet relieved that it was just Po.

"Wait, where are you going, Po?" Tigress asked in a suspicious tone.

"Well, I was hungry, so I thought I'd go to the…"

"Go back to bed," Tigress said, somewhat demanding. "For your own safety."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if those people come back to kill you again, we're all here to protect you," Tigress said.

"But I don't need protection," Po said, sounding a little stubborn. "I'm the Dragon Warrior…"

"… which is exactly why Jie is trying to kill you," Crane said in a very serious tone of voice.

"But guys… I'm hungry… If it has to be like this, can't some of you at least come with me to the kitchen?" Po begged, which just caused the Five to sigh. The panda's hunger and habits still managed to surprise them.

With a sigh from all of them, the Five decided to follow Po to the kitchen – even despite their injuries. Most of them had gotten away with few, but Crane had his wind injured to the point where he almost couldn't fly – therefore he chose to walk along with his friends.

"Those guys, do you think they'll come back tonight?" Po asked as they got outside and walked towards the dining hall. "I mean, you seemed so alerted when I left my room…"

"Why wouldn't they?" Crane asked, sounding better-knowing just as they entered the kitchen. "They already wounded us, so if they returned now, they'd have an easy time defeating us."

"You got that right birdy." Suddenly something hit Monkey and knocked him aside. The impact alone was enough to send him flying several meters away. Whatever had hit him, it was hard and spiky.

As he landed hard on the ground and after a few tries, he finally managed to push the pangolin off of himself. Just as he did, Tingguang tried to slash him with his sharp claws, but Monkey swiftly dodged.

The remaining five heroes were about to help him, but suddenly Crane was hit by the second pangolin twin. The very same moment, Tigress quickly jumped in front of Po and managed to catch one of Meili's Flame Wheels between her hands.

"Not bad, kitty… not bad at all," the beech marten smirked. "But not good enough!"

Suddenly she flipped onto her back. Tigress, who was still holding onto the wheel, was flung along and halfway around, Meili kicked Tigress in the stomach, sending the feline flying, but not that far.

Mantis and Viper were about to help Tigress as well, but suddenly a voice said: "Oi, Kamakiri-Kun!"

Even though the name had only been used once before, Mantis still reacted and turned to face Onibuto. The rhinoceros beetle was standing in a bend over position with his legs spread a little. It was the standard sumo fighting-stance, but to Po, Mantis and Viper, it just looked silly.

"Oi… rhinoceros-beetle-in-Japanese-Kun!" Mantis growled. "Get ready for round two!"

And with that Mantis jumped towards Onibuto. Just as he was about a centimeter or so from hitting him, Onibuto extended his right arm, which Mantis jumped right into. Hitting the beetle's hand, Mantis could have jumped into a wall and it wouldn't have hurt as much.

"Again we meet, Dragon Warrior," a familiar voice said and instinctively Po quickly got into a battle-stance. Out of the shadows came Jie – like a tiny, tiny ghost.

"Viper, go help the others," Po said in a serious tone.

"But…"

"I'll be fine," Po assured her as Jie walked closer. The mouse drew his sword from the sheath on his back, which made a barely unnoticeable sound as it escaped the sheath.

"Today you will fall," Jie said coldly and pointed his blade towards Po. Jie then moved it around in a sideways 8-motion as he approached his target.

"I still don't understand you, Jie," Po said as he started moving around Jie in a circle. "Why exactly do you want to kill me?"

"I already told you, panda," Jie said. "Because it'd fulfill me."

"But what will happen then?" Po asked, trying to buy himself some time. "Will you just go after another target?"

"Most likely."

"But why do you kill?"

"Why do people sing, dance and play games?" Jie asked in a sinister tone of voice, sending a chill down Po's spine, since he was already figuring it out.

"Eh… for fun…"

"Exactly," Jie snickered. "Enough talk, now destiny shall settle this."

Jie charged forwards and even though it was hard for Po to see him in the darkness, the panda still managed to dodge the mouse's first slashes. Fighting such a small opponent was still new to Po, and just as difficult.

Jie jumped towards Po making a front flip with his sword raised above his head, thus transforming himself into a wheel of death.

Po quickly stepped backwards out of range. Maybe it was just his imagination, but Po could actually feel how the sword almost hit his face. But the panda was just glad that it didn't.

Next thing, Jie jumped into the air, ready to slash again, but just as he brought his sword backwards to slash, Po took the chance and punched forwards. Jie was hit and as the sword fell out of his hand, the mouse flew a few meters backwards.

Po picked up the tiny, tiny sword. He was just barely able to hold it between his large fingers, and Po was impressed by the quality of it. When he had first seen Jie use it, it had appeared to be a similar to tooth stick in Po's opinion.

"Panda," Jie said in a threatening, almost frightening, dark tone of voice. "Hand. That. Sword. Back!"

Po could clearly tell that the sword meant a lot to Jie, but nonetheless, now the battle was at least even – now none of them possessed weapons (Po didn't have any intentions of using Jie's sword against him, since it was impossible for Po to wield it right).

But then Po made a big mistake; he threw the sword away – far away. None of them could see where it landed, since it was far out of range.

Jie clenched his fist tightly. Then with a surprisingly loud roar, the mouse attacked the panda again, this time going for a fighting style similar to Kung Fu.

Jie jumped towards Po with a kick, hitting the panda's chest. Just as Po had expected, it didn't really hurt him – like at all. As soon as Jie hit the ground, he immediately jumped up again to attack the same way, but instinctively Po just smacked Jie away.

The little mouse flew about ten meters away due to the strength Po had unintentionally put into the smack. Po waited for about ten seconds, then he realized that Jie didn't come back.

"I won…" Po whispered to himself, very surprised. He almost couldn't believe it. He looked over at the others; they seemed to have gotten the upper hand as well.

"Remember, this is not over!" Meili growled once she and her teammates retreated.

Po immediately started cheering, but the Five weren't as joyful – even with their injuries, they had managed to defeat the Jien Fong. This, to Tigress, could only mean that Jie's team had lost on purpose, just to raise their confidence.

"Guys, we did it!" But obviously Po didn't seem to quite think the same way. But he soon realized that something was wrong once he saw how his friends didn't quite look as joyous as he was. "Guys?"

"Po, you do realize that they were just toying with us, right?" Tigress asked sternly. This made Po's mood drop quite a bit, but Po wasn't quite convinced yet.

"But maybe they were tired from earlier," Po suggested. "Maybe…"

"Maybe they weren't," Mantis said. Even though he shared opinion with the others, he did seem satisfied with the outcome, since it meant that he had won over Onibuto. "Po, we barely got to touch them in the first battle."

"But…" Po stopped himself. Maybe his friends were right. It would seem logical after all. Po looked around at his friends. They didn't seem much more injured than they already were, so it was more obvious to Po that the Jien Fong had gone easy on them.

But was it part of their plan, Po couldn't help but wonder. Was their plan to tire them and then kill off Po when he stood back alone? And where was Master Shifu?


End file.
